No One Understands You and What to Do About It
Heidi Grant Halvorson
Harvard Business Review Press
R695
Pp 224
Have you ever felt you’re not getting through to the person you’re talking to, or not coming across the way you intend? You’re not alone. That’s the bad news. But there is something we can do about it. Heidi Grant Halvorson, social psychologist and best-selling author, explains why we’re often misunderstood and how we can fix that. Most of us assume that other people see us as we see ourselves, and that they see us as we truly are. But neither is true. Our everyday interactions are coloured by subtle biases that distort how others see us.
One Day in the Season of Rain
Mohan Rakesh
Penguin
R499
Pp 272
A classic of post-colonial theatre, Mohan Rakesh’s Hindi play is both an unforgettable love story and a modernist reimagining of the life of India’s greatest classical poet. It comes alive again in Aparna and Vinay Dharwadker’s new English translation, authorised by the author’s estate. This literary rendering is designed for performance on the contemporary cosmopolitan stage, and it is enriched by extensive commentary on the play’s contexts, legacy, themes and dramaturgy.
In a Land Far from Home
Syed Mujtaba Ali & Nazes Afroz Speaking Tiger
R350
Pp 336
Syed Mujtaba Ali from Sylhet (in erstwhile East Bengal, now Bangladesh) spent a year and a half teaching in Kabul from 1927 to 1929. Drawing on this experience, he later wrote Deshe Bideshe, which was published in 1948. Ali’s young mind was curious to explore the Afghan society of the time and, with his impressive language skills, he had access to a cross-section of Kabul’s population, whose ideas and experiences he chronicles with a keen eye and a wicked sense of humour.